First Dont continue if your Squeamish....sort of Graffic Picture within the report!




Bonnie and I have just celebrated our 25th Wedding Anniversary and with that as a grand excuse made a trip to the BVI without the girls. We had been planning this adventure for a long time and as things got closer and responsibilities became clearer, things were adjusted. In the past year we had endured a direct hit from a Hurricane and being in the Insurance Business the last year has been more than hectic. We are also the parents of active high school girls, one of which suffered a lower back injury fracturing her L5 earlier this summer. Sort of the summer of Doctors and Physical Therapy

Our trip had been on, cancelled, back on and then cancelled and a couple of days out with the urging of the kids, family and a calming of the waters it was back on…

Bonnie and I wandered to Miami on AA spent the night and flew into St Thomas the next day and drug the suitcases down to the Island Beachcomber…They have a great military rate, good bar, and clean rooms. I am always treated well there and recognized as the guy who stopped a drunk from trying to assault the reservations clerk a few years back.

We caught the 8:25 a.m. ferry to Roadtown after breakfast at the Petit Pump Room…The Native Son Ferry lost an engine coming out of the West End so in the end the 9:00 a.m. Smith ferry beat us to Roadtown.

We were first in line from C and I and were greeted with a single phrase after reviewing our passports and me announcing a departure date “ Welcome to Tortola, You Know the Deal” and then a smile and a wave we passed on…it took about two minutes. Paid a $7.00 duty based on $60.00 worth of declared food (Meat Products). Before anyone jumps…unless you have tried to provision during Festival you may or may not understand why I imported meat products…

Our plan was to be at Sea Cows at 1100 and made it at about 10:45. We were the last scheduled charter with Brent’s ProValor one of our sponsors who has decided to suspend operations next season. Second Wind a Beneteau 321 had been reported to be in excellent condition for her age 1999 and the deal was flat cheap…smaller than I wanted but we discussed it and since it was just two of us, why not? Doing business with a sponsor sealed the deal. The boat was well maintained and everything worked (Fantastic Refrigeration) except for two deficiencies. She was slow as her bottom was severely fouled and looked like the worlds largest chia pet and second was given to us with no fuel in the tank.

During the quick but thorough boat brief I asked if the fuel gage worked and was told no, but it has fuel…When dropping off Mike our briefer adjacent to the Nanny Cay FUEL DOCK as he wanted to show us where we were to return the boat His last words were since we had planned to go to Leverick why not top it off there when you get water (I had told him this was my planned route prior to going to Anegada).

Bobbies had delivered water/drinks heavy stuff at 12:00 and the order was perfect. I realized that even during Festival they would have taken care off anything I ordered.
Deshawn one of the nephews delivered the order and was going back the next day to University for his final year in Florida, a nice young man with a bright future.

Island Surf and Sail another sponsor delivered a fishing license! Wow what service!

We departed for Cane Garden Bay in beautiful weather and anchored in front of the swim line in front of the cemetery. We were successful in meeting up with Manpot and Candace, who had Steve Cropper and family in tow. We enjoyed a wonderful evening ending up at Carrot Bay and Palms delight. Thanks Mal for the memorable evening.



After being caught in the parade and delay we had a drink a Quito’s talked to Landcrab…probably going to see him in Merida for a day after Christmas…for a tour of the Hacienda.

After an early wake up a quick trip to Bobbies, a Rymers Special breakfast, and a couple of rounds of Coconut bread from the bakery we headed out to Green Cay/ Sandy Spit.
After checking weather and loving the cool breeze we decided to stay the night…hanging on the Spit…



Getting close to sunset another boat (We were alone) showed up, dropped anchor behind us and dinghy in… beaching their dingy on top of ours…They did apologized for hitting it…asked us to take a picture of them and walked off to take more…just strange…

Great night on the boat much cooler and our plans were to head to Leverick for an amended Jumbies date! Never made it…. Nothing will get your attention faster then a 500 drop in rpm from your auxiliary as its sucking air…Plan B became our only option as the engine died coming out of the anchorage…We sailed the boat to Cane Garden Bay the big Chia pet is sort of a pig going to weather…Anyway we passed the “Your screwed but a nice recovery test”, and tacked to the boat into CGB and dropped the hook close to the dingy line. We made a call for help.

Response was excellent…Boot’s the legendary Rasta Mechanic showed up. After about 3 minutes he confirmed the lack of fuel (He was skeptical at first being the second day on the boat). After I pulled up all that chain, he pushed us with the dingy to the fuel dock. Really nice guy if you can understand him…. Getting close to the fuel dock it was only after a little yelling and screaming did the two guys standing/working there realize that we had no power and without there help there was going to be a big crunch…some how it worked out. The fuel hoses still only reach about 10 ft down the dock and still need another 75 ft to reach the end of the pier. I put 17.9 Gallons in a reported 16 Gallon fuel tank.

Boot’s primed the engine and we ran it for a couple of minutes…he deemed it seaworthy…at least I think that’s sort of what he said…We dropped Boots off at his chase boat and headed out for North Sound, approaching Monkey point we realized with a slow boat and the delay we would never make it. Called Leverick cancelled my dinner reservations and pulled into Lee bay Great Camino and was besieged by SEATREC…!




After pulling in, Seatrec Boats showed up including Sanctuary driven by Monks wife…Tom she looks good baby proofed and you may want to consider this for the Cat Fight.



I offered to move to make room but she said it was no necessary…Bonnie and I had a blast watching the kids interaction and watching the program from afar….I cant say enough about this program that from this observers prospective is so focused on the kids. Never got to say hello to Monk as they were all so busy…but that’s the way it supposed to be!

We headed to North Sound and made it to Saba Rock, grabbed a ball, and proceeded to be the only ones on a Saba Rock Ball…it was closed for the season. Wandered around BEYC but it was dead as well well maybe ten boats on BEYC moorings by the end of the day.

Bonnie whacked a crown off putting up a breeze booster… but with a little TTOL help my little Wicked Witch of the West Indies smiling bride was whole again!



The next day I woke up with some issues….if you know my past history I have a tendency to vapor lock when traveling to the BVI …lets see in the past several years I have ended up in a Puerto Rican Hospital with pneumonia…last year I fell on Sanctuary and deep bruised a thigh and arm and tore cartilage in several places on my ribs while at Anchor…it’s the only time I would have called VISAR if I could have reached the Radio…fifteen Minutes went by before I could move or stand and seek help…I recovered enough to get Bonnie to swim from the Beach…only to chew me out for doing it again!

So what could it be this year?

Spider Bite! That I took with me!

I noticed it in Miami…More than a Mosquito Bite but nothing serious…. notice a small mark on my right leg about mid shin…. This picture was taken the first day!



This is what happens when that heads south and you also add an Auto Immune reaction to the deal…sort of graphic but learn from my mistake…. this is at the end it was not that bad yet, just a couple of red marks.



No real pain…but sort of scary…only on the back, chest, and arms…

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So we came up with a plan…we were facing a wave that would bottle us for 12-24 hours in three days. We decided to spend another couple of nights on the boat and head to ST Thomas.

Headed to Leverick, picked up ice, took a shower, Thanks Nick! an went to the store. We were the only ones there so we pulled up and headed to Cooper Island…We love Cooper and construction on a new restaurant is underway….I think its going to be nice! Hit happy hour and ate on the boat!

Next night we slipped over to Key Bay Peter Island had the place to our selves’…



Best place I have seen for shells in the BVI….



The next day a short sail back to Nanny Cay and hopped the 10:30 to CA. We grabbed lunch at the Petit Pump Room and off to the Wyndham Sugar Bay. Checked in and grabbed a cab to Red Hook Family Practice located at the Red Hook Plaza building beside Duffy’s love Shack.

Long story short after a couple of Doc’s, a little journal reading in the back room looking for answers by them a consensus of treatment was attained for a necrotic spider bite/ auto immune reaction with a whopping dose of steroids! I did start laughing when they were gently probing with the syphilis questions…I assured them it was not an issue! 24 hours had me well on the way to recovery.

Thanks to the youthful Mark Livingston M.D., fellow Texan, former navel flight Surgeon who said it was okay to drink beer at Duffy’s while my prescription was filled. He called the next day just to check on my status…I guess I was one of the more interesting things that walked through the clinic lately….I will have them on speed dial for next year.

We enjoyed the Wyndham and ended up there with a Price line rate of around $160.00 with all taxes…something to be said for going in August. Nice Hotel I will be back!

Not allot of pictures but despite the hick-ups we had a great time…after twenty-five years the two of us have figured out time spent together no matter what we are doing is what we want…we must be doing something right…

The trip home was uneventful, but got home late…. Our girls had moved back in that night from hanging out with there cousins while were gone..Within 24 hours we were back at the docs with our youngest and Swine Flu…We have had an outbreak associated with a dance camp that Emily attended…. our actual 25th was yesterday…we shared a bottle of wine while taking care of our flu victim…We laughed and would not have had it any other way! Can’t wait for my turn….Oh and do we ever go to come back…!

More pics on the webshots link below....